KNOXVILLE, TN —M3 (Music Mix Mobile), a New Jersey/California-based remote facilities company combining the talents of award-winning production professionals and state-of-the-art audio solutions, chose to use Waves MultiRackSoundGrid® plugins with a Lawo console at the 58th annual GRAMMY® Awards, held at Los Angeles’ Staples Center on Monday, Feb. 15, 2016, aired on the CBS Television Network and broadcast live in all four U.S. time zones for the first time.
M3 co-founder and Engineer-in-Charge Joel Singer notes that M3 recently upgraded their setup to a Lawo mc256 console with a Waves Extreme Server connected to it, along with a DiGiGrid MGO so that they can do MADI inserts across the entire Lawo system. “We’re able to control everything through the Lawo integration with the Waves setup,” he states, “making it a much, much more speedy process – crucial in getting all of these different setups done with all the different artists using the Waves plugins on certain insert channels.”
Singer adds, “The first benefit of using the MultiRack plugin host with the Lawo is that you have the Waves plugins that everyone is used to. Our engineers are accustomed to the plugins that they used to use in the Avid VENUE setup, so they are go-to plugs. Whether it’s the Waves CLA-76 Compressor/Limiter, Renaissance Vox, Renaissance Compressor, H- Reverb, IR1 Convolution Reverb or H-Delay, our engineers are at home with them and they’re used to the controls. Being able to run them directly on the console is an added benefit because now the workflow just goes so much faster. You just hit the plugin page on the Lawo, and up comes MultiRack, so you can just quickly scroll to get down to the plugin you want, open it, set it, and hit update on the Lawo, which then updates the snapshot in MultiRack – and now you have a unified, fully integrated system. We’re able to use either the touchscreen to control parameters on the Waves plugs, or we can go the conventional way and mouse over to it and do it the way we used to – whatever co-music mixers Eric Shilling and John Harris are comfortable with, as they used to just use the trackball to grab something and manipulate it. They’re really happy doing it that way, and that’s kind of where it’s at. So it’s all working great and it’s very comfortable for both of them.”
On using Waves plugins, Singer remarks, “One of the most important plugins is the H-Reverb Hybrid Reverb. We’re using it in a mono/in surround/out configuration, 5.0 out configuration. That way we’re able to create a space for vocals and instruments: the Staples Center sounds great, but it’s not the type of ambiance you would want on a vocal or on certain instruments. We are using two instances of those, to be able to create different types of 5.0 reverb returns, which fills out the entire surround infrastructure. We also use, again, the Waves CLA-76 Renaissance Compressor and Renaissance DeEsser on all the vocals, to be able to level them and keep it where the engineer and artist are happy with it. Some Waves plugins help add character, while some are true problem solvers that help us keep leveling exactly where it should be. They all come in extremely handy throughout the course of the entire event.”
Photo caption: A view of M3’s workflow for the 58th annual GRAMMY® Awards, featuring a Lawo mc256 console and Waves MultiRack SoundGrid® plugins.
